Cops say O'Neill Jr. has fled the country

When Sean O'Neill Jr. was sentenced to prison in July for a Thanksgiving Day drunken driving crash, he spelled out in simple language perhaps the overriding truth about himself.

"My problem with drinking is responsible for bad things happening in my life," said O'Neill, who shot and killed his best friend at the end of a night of drinking and partying when both were teenagers, and who had crashed his Cadillac into an occupied home with more than three times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood system in November 2011.

Those words came back to haunt O'Neill again this month, as he was caught consuming alcohol while serving parole for his DUI conviction. After a subsequent positive test for MDMA, the illegal drug known as Ecstasy, O'Neill allegedly cut off the alcohol monitor strapped to his ankle and disappeared from supervision. He is now a wanted man.

"He's in the wind right now," said one law enforcement official familiar with O'Neill's case.

On Wednesday, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced that Chester County Detectives had determined that O'Neill is currently in the Irish Republic. His father, Sean O'Neill Sr., is a native of Northern Ireland and was deported to that country in 2011 following a federal criminal conviction for tax fraud, among other offenses.

"If (the younger) O'Neill ever returns to the United States, he will be arrested immediately," Hogan said in a press release. On Monday, Hogan remarked that if O'Neill had indeed fled the United States, it would be a matter of "good riddance."

First Assistant District Attorney Michael Noone declined to discuss how authorities had determined that O'Neill Jr. was in Ireland. He said his office had no information on O'Neill's father's whereabouts.

O'Neill, 23, had a last known address in the 700 block of South Third Street in Philadelphia. In July, he was sentenced to 60 days to six months for driving under the influence.

In August, O'Neill, through his attorney, Vincent DiFabio of Paoli, asked Common Pleas Court Judge William Mahon, who was supervising his DUI case, to grant him work release from county prison so he could register for classes at Temple. On Aug. 22, Mahon granted the request, over the objection of Assistant District Attorney Marilyn Seide Mitchell, who had prosecuted O'Neill's DUI case.

O'Neill's parole date was Sept. 5, and he began regularly making contact with Thomas Carney of the county Adult Probation Office. He was fitted with a so-called SCRAM device, used to detect the presence of alcohol in a parolee's blood system, was forbidden from drinking, and ordered to undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation.

According to Chris Murphy, director of the county probation office, O'Neill was in good standing throughout September and the bulk of October. He was enrolled at Temple taking journalism classes and was keeping in touch with Carney, Murphy said.

Then, on Oct. 30, the SCRAM device alerted the Mid Atlantic Monitoring System that O'Neill showed signs of using alcohol, according to court records. He was told to report to the probation office at the county Justice Center in West Chester on Nov. 1. When he did, he was asked to give a urine sample, and a field test showed a positive result for Ecstasy.

O'Neill was then ordered to report to the probation office again on Nov. 5. He did not appear. Carney checked several old addresses for O'Neill, including his mother's home in Glen Mills, but could not find him. On Nov. 8, Mahon signed the bench warrant.

O'Neill's disappearance took DiFabio aback.

"I was very surprised when I heard he absconded," he said in an interview Wednesday. "I know he was at Temple taking classes, and seemed to be doing well, participating in counseling." He said he has not heard form his client since he was declared missing.

"I would hope that he will voluntarily surrender," DiFabio said. "I would think that would be the sensible thing to do." DiFabio said he would face only a month or two detention in Chester County for his DUI violation, and several more months for violating terms of his probation in Delaware County on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge from 2011.

"But why would you want to be a fugitive for the rest of your life?" DiFabio said. "It wasn't like he was facing a long jail sentence."

O'Neill's father was deported back to his native Northern Ireland a year ago after serving time in federal prison on charges of tax fraud, falsely claiming U.S. citizenship and illegally possessing a firearm muzzle suppressor.

According to authorities who spoke on the condition on anonymity, O'Neill Sr. was listed as having flown into a Canadian airport from Ireland on Nov. 6, a day after his son failed to appear at the probation office. He was denied entry into that country and shortly afterward returned across the Atlantic.

Murphy said a bench warrant had been entered into a national database and that if O'Neill Jr. is spotted by police and detained, county authorities would be notified.